


Day 20: Possession

by mrs_d



Series: Do What I Wantober 2020 [20]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Step-Devil, Teenaged Trixie Espinoza, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:16:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27134438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrs_d/pseuds/mrs_d
Summary: “Well, if it’s rebellion she’s after, then I admire Beatrice’s sentiment,” Lucifer said. “Even if her methods are a little... embarrassing.”
Relationships: Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar
Series: Do What I Wantober 2020 [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947496
Comments: 7
Kudos: 106





	Day 20: Possession

“I guess I was just surprised,” Chloe said. 

The elevator doors opened to reveal the familiar sight of his penthouse. She walked in like she owned the place — she did, she just didn’t know it yet — and Lucifer followed, heading to the bar. He fetched their favorite bottle and a couple of glasses out of long habit.

“But maybe you never see this kind of thing coming,” Chloe went on. “Not really, anyway. I don’t know. What do you think?”

Lucifer stalled for time, unbuttoning his collar before he answered. “I’m afraid I can’t be of much help here, darling.”

Chloe gave him an incredulous look. “Can’t be of much help?” she echoed. “Lucifer, aren’t you upset? Don’t you want to stop her?”

Lucifer focused on pouring them each a drink as a way of avoiding her eye. He doubted that she really thought _he_ would the one bothered by this turn of events. More likely, he was just a convenient outlet for her own emotions. She was projecting, as Doctor Linda would call it. 

So he spoke carefully. “All I’m saying is, you might do well to talk to another parent about this. Get an unbiased opinion.”

“Because other parents are going to be unbiased,” Chloe said, sarcastic, taking the glass he offered. “I mean, you know your reputation. People don’t exactly react well to these things.”

Lucifer gulped down half his scotch. He did have to grant her that one. “So, what do you want me to do, love?” he asked after a moment.

“I don’t know,” Chloe said again. Drink in hand, she began to pace. “I mean, it’s probably just a phase, right? Something a lot of teenagers try?”

Lucifer shrugged. He hadn’t the foggiest. 

“So I shouldn’t freak out,” Chloe concluded. “I should just let it go, but— but it _freaks_ me out. I mean, she— ugh, man, this is awkward.”

“I know,” Lucifer agreed. 

He nursed the rest of his drink, watching her walk back and forth across their marble floor. Her hair was up, but a bit wild after the day they’d had, and he could tell that she was approaching this problem as another case to be solved, bouncing ideas off her partner, asking him to consult. And, while he found the topic distasteful and didn’t know the first thing about raising teenagers, he decided to try. 

“Perhaps it will help if you change your thinking,” he said, setting his empty glass down on the bar. “You’re buying into that old-fashioned, almost Puritan perspective, thinking that there’s black and white, good and evil. And the world just isn’t that simple, Detective, you know that.”

“I do,” she admitted, slowing her pace. “Rationally, I know I’m being dumb. I mean, you’re— you know, and that’s fine. I’m perfectly fine with it.”

Lucifer raised one skeptical eyebrow.

“Mostly fine,” she amended. “There’s still sometimes where I think— even now, where it hits me, and I think I might not be fine. But only every once in a while, you know? It’s not— not your fault, I’m just—”

“Human?” Lucifer asked wryly. “I know.” He’d long ago forgiven her for being occasionally unable to handle the truth of what he was.

“Still, though. She could get hurt, couldn’t she? Isn’t it dangerous?”

“She’s not in any more risk than she is associating with me,” he said honestly. “In fact, having the Devil as a—” His voice faltered. He still couldn’t quite get the word out. “She’s safe.” 

Chloe’s smile, when it came, was soft. Lucifer returned it, then went on to what he suspected was the heart of the issue.

“Why is this bothering you so much?” he asked directly. “She painted her nails black, lit some candles, and used a Ouija board with her girlfriend. So what?”

“The Ouija board had a pentagram on it,” Chloe pointed out, like she expected him to react to that.

But he didn’t. She was the one upset by this, not him. “And?” he prompted. 

Chloe stared at the wall over his shoulder for a long moment, thinking. “She’s rebelling,” she said finally. “Not in the way I expected, of course....”

That was true enough. Beatrice had never been afraid of him as a child, though she took him at his word that he was the Devil. Now that she was a little older, however, she seemed to see him the way the rest of the human world did — as nothing more than Chloe Decker’s eccentric partner. 

“Your family never struck me as the religious type,” Lucifer agreed, a question in his tone. 

Chloe shook her head. “Dan’s mother made sure she was baptized, though. We used to go to Mass with her when Trixie was small. They still go, sometimes, the three of them.”

“Ah. Yes, well, leave it to Daniel to complicate things,” Lucifer conceded. He’d never quite managed to patch things up between them, after all. 

Chloe smiled faintly but didn’t reply. Lucifer reached for the bottle and poured fresh drinks for each of them. 

“Well, if it’s rebellion she’s after, then I admire Beatrice’s sentiment,” he said. “Even if her methods are a little... embarrassing.”

Chloe sank onto one of the barstools and reached for her glass. “You can say that again.”

“As long as she doesn’t start sacrificing goats, or hurting people in my name, I don’t see what the harm is. It’s all nonsense, anyway,” Lucifer said, then he added, “But if she starts attending one of those terrible mock-churches, I might have to intervene.”

Chloe huffed a laugh. “Fair enough,” she said, but she cocked her head, clearly giving it some more thought. “It’s all nonsense?” she repeated. “Ouija boards, haunted houses— or, well, I guess demonic possession is a thing.”

“Not anymore it’s not,” Lucifer muttered darkly. He returned to Hell every few weeks, just to be sure.

“Right, of course,” Chloe said, taking his hand. She squeezed it briefly, then let go. “But the rest?”

“Myth,” he replied. Then he reconsidered. “Most of it, anyway. Some is probably mislabeled divine intervention. My siblings popping down to do Dad’s bidding and getting mistaken for a ghost, that kind of thing.”

Something seemed to occur to Chloe, and Lucifer knew right away what it was. It’d been years since he saw Azrael, but Miss Lopez still talked about her friend Rae-Rae. If Chloe asked, he’d tell her the truth, of course, but only if she asked.

“One time, Ella told me,” Chloe began. “It’s gonna sound crazy, but she told me she sees ghosts.”

Lucifer nodded. He sipped his drink, patiently waiting for the question.

“Or, one ghost, anyway,” Chloe amended. “I don’t think Ella’s delusional or anything, but if it’s all nonsense....”

“Miss Lopez is not delusional,” Lucifer assured her. “If she said she saw something, she did.”

Chloe narrowed her eyes. Even after years together, it was such a delight to watch her solve mysteries. He could practically see the gears turn as she replayed his words, turning them over in her mind until they fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

“But she didn’t see a ghost,” Chloe concluded. “She saw... your sister?”

Lucifer grinned, pleased and proud. “Well done, Detective,” he said. “Azrael visits LA from time to time. Never comes to see me, of course, as, technically speaking, Dad’s forbidden it, but she and Miss Lopez have struck up a most unusual friendship.” 

“Huh,” said Chloe, open-mouthed. Then she gave herself a little shake and returned to the matter at hand. “So, you think Trixie’s okay?”

“Definitely,” Lucifer said. 

Chloe gave him a small, teasing smile. “Is that your professional opinion, as the Devil?”

“Why, of course, darling,” Lucifer replied, teasing her back. Then he added, more seriously, “There is nothing that a Ouija board, or anything like it, can do to harm her, celestially speaking. She can spook herself, certainly, but she can’t commune with the dead, or sell her soul, or summon a demon—”

“If she wants to summon a demon, she just has to call Maze,” Chloe interrupted.

“That’s true enough,” Lucifer laughed.

“And what about your non-professional opinion?” asked Chloe after a moment. At Lucifer’s questioning look, she added, “As her step-father.”

Lucifer shifted his weight uncomfortably and reached for his glass again. Once upon a time, Chloe might have grabbed his wrist to stop him, but now she knew it wasn’t really about the alcohol. He just needed a moment, and she let him have it. 

When it stretched, however, and he refilled his glass again, she said, “You told me I should talk to another parent.”

“I did say that, didn’t I,” Lucifer sighed, looking up at last. She knew all the best ways to trap him. “In my non-professional opinion,” he began, “and please bear in mind that I have no experience upon which to base this assertion—”

“Noted,” said Chloe with a nod.

“—but I think you’re right. This probably is just a phase, and she probably will grow out of it. In fact, I doubt it’ll last longer than her relationship with that wannabe witch.”

Chloe laughed with relief. “Right? I would never say this to Trix, but... I think she can do better than Amy.”

“Well, at least Beatrice managed to teach her how to apply eyeliner properly,” Lucifer said, thinking of those atrocious black smears that had been around Amy’s eyes the first time Beatrice brought her for dinner.

“And where do you think Trixie learned that?” Chloe countered. “You taught her.”

“I suppose I did,” Lucifer admitted. 

He glanced up from the bar to find Chloe smiling at him with something like pride. It almost hurt to look at her. He cleared his throat, as it felt like there was something sticking in it, and took a deep breath. 

“All done with the parenting talk?” he asked, hoping he didn’t sound too desperate.

“Yes,” said Chloe. She nudged his arm playfully. “You did very well. Almost convinced me you’re a responsible adult.”

Lucifer scoffed in fake outrage. “Take that back.”

Chloe’s grin turned challenging. “Make me.”

Lucifer leaned across the bar and buried his fingers in her hair. She closed her eyes, but he stopped just short of a kiss. “Oh, believe me,” he said against her mouth, “I will.”


End file.
